Those skilled in the art know vegetation can be introduced to non-saturated areas, saturated areas and inundated areas in generally two ways. Namely, vegetation can be introduced by plug planting and/or seeding. Plug planting is generally defined as the planting of seedlings, cuttings or other established plant materials in a particular area. Seeding is generally defined as broadcasting, drilling, and hydroseeding.
These known methods suffer several disadvantages. First, plug planting and seeding are both expensive in terms of labor and materials. Both methods can become prohibitively expensive particularly for large-scale operations which may be, by way of example, one acre or more. Secondly, particularly with regard to plug planting, the known methods are prohibitively expensive where it is desired to introduce more than a single plant species to an area. Thirdly, particularly with regard to seeding, the known methods do not economically permit the accurate placement of a predetermined quality and/or quantity of plant seed material in a particular area. Seeding is also disadvantageously subject to wind, water and/or other dispersive forces which undesirably move plant seed material from desired locations. Lastly, the known methods, particularly seeding, are disadvantageous since the seeds, buoyant by nature, typically float on top of a water surface when located thereon and do not sink so the seeds can root into a bottom surface.
The prior art also consists of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,897,946, 6,386,796 and 6,558,081 which describe methods for creating a non-permeable barrier layer over contamination. The patents teach that plant seeds may be included with particles. A plurality of particles, each having a core and fine-grained material located about the core, are non-precisely distributed over the contamination in such a quantity that the particles are heaped upon one another. In one embodiment, the particles form a permanent underwater layer which forms a barrier over the contamination.
In light of at least the disadvantages of the known prior art methods of introducing vegetation to various areas, it would be desirable for a distribution method to be cost effective in terms of both labor and materials particularly for a large area. It would also be desirable to have a method for providing vegetation to a particular area where the method permitted the simultaneous introduction of one or more plant species in a cost effective manner. It would also be advantageous to have a method that permitted the accurate placement of a predetermined quantity of plant seed material over the target area and which maintained the plant seed material where it was placed. It would also be advantageous to have a method of distributing plant seed material to inundated areas where the plant seed material did not float on the top of the water, but instead sank to the bottom of the water. Additionally, it would be desirable for a method of providing vegetation via the distribution of plant seed material to a particular area to not create a barrier as taught in the above-mentioned patents. Such a method may be desirably achieved by causing a portion of the vector carrying the plant seed material to disassociate from the vector.